The Well-Appointed Desk

The second release from the new, improved relaunch of Esterbrook is the Phaeton 300R (MSRP $85, street price $68). While the Estie was designed to be a modern fountain pen that could also use the original Esterbrook screw-in nib units, the Phaeton is a retro-styled fountain pen with a semi-hooded nib reminiscent of mid-century pen design.

The Phaeton 300R ships in the same box as the Estie. It’s a red textural fabric box, like burlap, with white foil stamped logo on the top. It’s neither overly flashy nor overly cheap which is appropriate for a pen at this price point.

The Phaeton 300R is available in several acrylic colors: red, blue, green and black with a silver cap and gold plated clip and nib. It ships with a plunger-style converter.

The nib is only available in a medium width presently but its a presently crisp medium.

The Phaeton weighs 18gms capped or posted and a mere 8gms unposted. It’s a small pen overall measuring just 5.5″ (14cm) capped, 4.875″ (12.5cm) uncapped and 6″ (15.3cm) posted. It takes its dimensions from vintage pens so it might not work for everyone. It does post though.

In writing, I wasn’t sure I was going to like the Phaeton because I don’t usually write with medium nib pens but the Phaeton has a crisp, almost italic-like grind on the nib making it a pleasant writing experience. I find most medium nib pens to be rather flat and round creating a rather uninspired writing experience — like writing with a ballpoint pen. So, the more crisp, flat medium angle on this nib (and it could just be the nib I received) is a pleasant surprise.

Overall, the pen speaks to me aesthetically. I missed my chance to get one of the Aurora Duo Cart pens last year which fulfilled a similar vintage vibe and the Esterbrook Phaeton is at a much better price point.

I do hope that other nib sizes will be offered at some point but the medium nib is actually quite appealing.

Tools:

Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
Pens: Esterbrook Phaeton 300R in Signal red ~~MSRP $85~~ $68
Ink: Birmingham Pen Co. William D. Boyce Emerald Scout (part of the Ink Parcel subscription)

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Brush Pen Review: Pentel Ultra Fine Artist Brush Sign Pen

AnaMarch 8, 2019March 4, 20193 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

I’ve seen a few brush pens in my day, and most with bristles have the same average-size tip. Pentel’s Ultra Fine Artist Brush Sign Pen ($3.65) is a rare exception. (I chose black to test, but it comes in 12 colors.) On the outside, it has a basic plastic body typical of disposable brush pens.

1 - Pentel UF artist brush pen

Remove the cap, however, and the “ultra fine” part becomes obvious. If you were tasked with the proverbial job of painting the eyelashes of angels, this pen would get the job done. It has the finest brush tip of any brush pen I’ve used.

For comparison, the Pentel ultra fine is shown (on the right) next to the Kuretake No. 13 Fountain Brush Pen (left) and the Pentel Kirari Pocket Brush Pen (center) – two of my favorites when I want a brush pen with bristles.

3 - brush tip comparison - Kuretake, Pentel Pocket brush, UF Pentel

In my sketch and writing samples, I was able to get a wide range of thick and thin lines. I especially like the lovely dry-brush effect that’s possible when held at its broadest angle. (Alas, I’m not a calligrapher, but if I were, I would put that dry brush to work.) The tip springs back nicely and retains its fine point.

4 - page spread of sample sketch and writing

According to JetPens’ specs, the pen contains water-soluble, dye-based ink, so I knew it wouldn’t be waterproof, but I gave it a quick swipe of water anyway. I like the cool gray hue that results when washed. (Samples done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, which is sized for light washes.)

5 - water-soluble test in S&B Alpha

Final Impressions

I love this brush pen! The wide range of marks it can make from ultra fine to wide makes it fully versatile for writing, sketching and calligraphy. My only wish is that Pentel would come out with an ultra fine artist brush sign pen containing black waterproof ink, too.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Sailor Studio 273

Jessica ColesMarch 7, 2019March 13, 20193 Comments

By Jessica Coles

I fell in love with Sailor Studio 273 as soon as I saw a photo of the ink on two different types of paper – the ink looked like an entirely different color when only the paper was changed.

This is another ink that I have placed in my “Inks that have really weird properties” category; a category that houses other inks I find unusual or amazing. Other inks include Robert Oster Avocado, Sailor 123, and Montblanc Swan Illusion as well.

The Sailor Studio inks use a numbering system to differentiate the inks – a numbering system that also gives clues to the color of the ink. The first number (here, 2) is used to indicate the shade of the ink, although saturation is indicated to some extent as well. 1 is the lightest and 0 the darkest.

The last two numbers (here 7 and 3) can be used to find the family of the ink – inks that have nearly the same color mixtures. Ink 373 looks like it may be close to Montblanc Swan Illusion which made me even more excited to try 273 – hopefully, I could find another ink that was slightly different than Swan but also contained the same haunting color mixture.

I wasn’t disappointed. Sailor Studio 273 is a strange mixture of brown, dusky pink and what looks like an orangish yellow.

I have tried to show inks that look similar here, but as you can see, nothing is quite there. I didn’t include Swan Illusion since it contains more red undertones.

The photo above shows 273 on Tomoe cream paper. With the top swab of ink, I smeared it while it was still wet to show how the ink layers upon itself.

One note – there is no sparkle in this ink. There was a tiny bit of sparkle left in the nib of this pen from a previous fill.

As for other qualities in the ink, it is absolutely not water resistant and the flow is medium. The price is high, however, coming in at $21.49 for only 20mL from this eBay seller. So far, no one in the US has started to carry this ink, but I’m hoping someone will!

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me. For more information, visit our About page.

In Link Love

Link Love: Spiders & Tortillons

AnaMarch 6, 2019March 6, 20191 Comment

Several months ago, I was supposed to receive a Montblanc Rouge et Noir Metamorphosis Fountain Pen from Appelboom but FedEx lost the package and has spent the last few months vehemently passing the buck. They told me they sent it back to Europe, they told Appelboom they tried to contact me and when I didn’t respond they “destroyed the package”?!?! Can you believe that?!?! Luckily, Azizah at Gourmet Pens received her package from Appelboom with both models in the package so hop over and watch her review of these two lovelies. I had wanted to review them in time for Halloween so you can see how long I’ve been fighting with FedEx about it.

Ever wondered what those rolled up paper points are called that are sold in art supply shops? They are called tortillons (news to me too!) and Art Supply Critic has a review about some listed in the Art Supplies & Creativity section this week.

Ink Review: Monteverde Coral (LA Pen Show 2019)

Laura CameronMarch 5, 2019April 16, 20191 Comment

Review by Laura Cameron

I wasn’t able to attend this year’s LA Pen Show, but my favorite pen show attendee brought me back a bottle of the special show ink, Monteverde’s Coral.

It turns out that Monteverde’s version of Coral is a very orange ink, leaning slightly red.

When I compared it to other ink swatches I had in my “stash” it looked pretty close to Robert Oster’s Red Orange or Monteverde’s Mandarin Orange. I had the special Papier Plume Heart of Gold ink ready to swatch at the same time and it has a bit of a reddish orange look as well.

When I compared the Monteverde to what I traditionally think of coral (like J. Herbin’s Corail de Tropiques) they don’t look similar at all.

In my other ink tests, I really found Monteverde’s Coral to lean very orange. I got almost no red in the regular writing experience, though I did get some really dark shading especially in the ink dots.

Overall, Monteverde Coral seems like a great orange, but I’m not sure it satisfies my need for the one true coral ink!

Papers: Maruman Mnemosyne N182A Inspiration Notebook A5 ($10.50), and Crossfield Journal ($24.00)
Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80)
Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) and Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards ($15)
Inks: Monteverde Coral (LA Pen Show 2019)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Pen Review

Pen (Pre)Review: Spoke Pen

AnaMarch 4, 2019March 4, 20193 Comments

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early edition of the Spoke Pen (starting at $65 — 5 days left), a collaborative project recently launched on Kickstarter between Brian Conti of Spoke Design and Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict. Y’all have heard of Brad, right? Of course you have. Probably have an enamel pin of his head on your NockCo pen case too? So, I’m probably not the first person to tell you about this collaborative project? I didn’t think so.

It’s a lightweight anodized aluminum design with fluted cutouts in the body and black accents for the clip, grip and end caps. The grip has a rippled grip — I call it “grippled”. The grip doesn’t have a soft touch plastic/rubber coating but it does feel easier on the hands than I expected when I first saw it. The clip has some give and flex to it so that it can be clipped to a notebook cover or pocket. The fluted cuts in the body help to keep the pen from rolling so I would be curious what a clipless version would look like. I don’t often need a clip other than to act as a roll-stop so I am curious about the aesthetics of the pen without the clip?

The coolest feature of the Spoke Pen? The magnetic snap cap. It makes opening and closing the pen a snap, really. I did notice that the pen had a tendency to attract other metal objects due to the magnet though. This can be a plus or a minus but is something to be aware of.

The biggest downside of the Spoke Pen? The cap does not post. I am not a cap poster usually but this might be an issue for some folks. You might consider holding out for version 2.0.

Brad was thrilled to design the pen to fit the Signo DX sized refills but I, of course, couldn’t leave well enough alone. The pen shipped with a middle-of-the-road 0.5mm sized DX refill which is not exactly my cup of tea so I immediately grabbed another pen to see if a different refill would work. The Sakura Ballsign gel refill that I harvested from a Knock pen fit fine. So, if you were hesitating to purchase the Spoke Pen because you are not a fan of the Signo DX refill, I feel confident that a good number of other refills should work besides the DX and Hi-Tec-Cs (which according to my Refill Guide are the same size).

Spoke Design Pen comparison — From left to right: Fisher Space Pen, Parker Jotter, Baron Fig Click and Baron Fig Squire, Spke Pen, Retro 51 Tornado, Studio Neat Mark One and Lamy 2000 Multipen.

One thing I noticed when I searched for comparable ballpoint, rollerball and gel pens in my stash — very few had caps. I know some of my friends who carry pens in their pockets have complained that the Retro 51 has leaked more than once as the point accidentally became exposed to the fabric of their jeans, etc. eventually causing them to swear off the pen completely. So, the Spoke Pen may be a good alternative and eliminate the accidental pocket leakage.

As someone who seldom carries a pen in my pocket, I have not been a victim to these issues. My pens usually go in a bag or case or on my desk.

My initial reaction to the overall design was that it was a little tactical-looking and not necessarily an aesthetic I would have gravitated towards. However, it feels good in the hand and the magnet cap is really fun. If you are looking for a reusable pen barrel with a cap, this is a good option and the colors are bright and vivid.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Sailor Studio 653

Jessica ColesFebruary 28, 2019September 16, 2019Leave a comment

By Jessica Coles

I love purple inks. Dark purple, light purple, purples that lean red and purples that lean blue. All purple inks find a home with me. I think I seek out purple inks because, as a child, there were NO purple inks. My rainbow of ink color was restricted to those in a Bic four color pen with black, blue, red, and green.

I first opened Sailor Studio 653 and thought of blueberry pie. It is a deep, juicy purple that hugs red but still remains it’s own unique color.

I always get ink on my hands while working with pens or on an ink review. When 653 got on my hands, however, it reminded me immediately of the color my hands turn when I’ve been baking with blueberries or picking blackberries. Public Service Announcement: Do Not Drink Ink. Instead, go find some blueberry pie to enjoy while writing with Sailor Studio 653.

The shading with 653 wasn’t as good as I was hoping. In swabs (on Col-o-Ring cards!), the shading properties looked promising, but in writing, this doesn’t happen.

However, a light sheen (not a slight sheen, a light one) does show on sheen-compatible paper such as Tomoe River paper. Here I’m using a notebook produced by Birmingham Pen Company and heavier letters did sheen – a sort of greenish gold sheen.

Unfortunately, Sailor Studio 653 ink is in no way water resistant. It is slower to dry (30-45 seconds), so take care when writing quickly. However, I found it was well worth the downsides to have such a beautifully rich color in my writing.

The closest colors in my collection were ColorVerse Einstein Ring and Pelikan Amethyst – two other beautiful purple inks.

If you enjoy purple inks as much as I do, Sailor studio 653 is absolutely one that you should try. It can be hard to get this ink, and I’ve found the best way to do so is through eBay – a seller who ships from Japan. The wait is well worth it, although the price is rather high ($21.49 for 20mL). Blueberry pie will never make a good ink, but this may be the best substitute!

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me. For more information, visit our About page.

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